Storage or compartment structures are often installed on commercial passenger aircraft. These storage and compartment structures may also be referred to as monuments. Monuments may include various types of structures within an aircraft such as, for example, closets, partitions, sleeping quarters for cabin crew, lavatories, and galleys for providing in-flight catering meal service to passengers. Traditionally, during shipping, installation, and other operations the exterior surfaces of the monuments have been protected from scratches and dents using bulky foam pads covered by tarp.
The tarp-covered foam pads are usually heavy and rigid, and may be challenging to accommodate in a manufacturing environment. Therefore, in order to limit use, the foam pads may only cover finished surfaces of the monument, and any unfinished surfaces of the monument are left exposed. Even when the foam pads are placed on finished surfaces, the pads are rigid and do not ordinarily conform to the exterior contour of the finished surface. Furthermore, at least a portion of the foam pad is removed during installation to perform various operations. For example, a foam pad may be removed to install a display screen. The foam pads may be releasably secured to the monument by fastening products such as fabric hook and loop fasteners. Removing the entire foam pad also results in the entire exterior surface of the monument exposed, thereby making the exterior surface more susceptible to scratches and dents. Indeed, an exposed surface of the monument may be scratched or dented if objects such as tooling make impact with the exposed surface of the monument. This issue may become even more problematic if the monument includes delicate surfaces that are even easier to scratch or dent.